Last week saw the passing of England’s ferocious Iron Lady, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher was the last of the Cold War’s triumvirate leaders, tremendously bold world leaders, who stood against the spread of Soviet-style communism.

While some stopped to reflect on the virtue of one of history’s greatest champions of individualist philosophy, others felt it was appropriate to actually dance in the streets at the news of her death. Yes, the same people who champion tolerance actually felt it appropriate to revel in someone’s death.

This vitriol, which has also been directed toward the late president Reagan and the late Pope John Paul II in the past, is a testament to their greatness. Winston Churchill once said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something, sometime in your life.” And stand they did.

It’s hard to imagine the Iron Curtain lifting without a united front of peaceful yet strong resistance the three presented. Reagan’s unrelenting condemnation of “the evil empire,” and its philosophy is of course as much a fabric of the American culture as baseball. Who can view images of the Berlin Wall toppling without hearing Reagan’s command to Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev? Similarly, Thatcher stood against collectivist philosophy, ridding England of crippling socialist economic policies and providing a fiery example of individual strength — particularly for women. And, as the leader of the world’s largest church, John Paul II’s words of hope and encouragement to those suffering under the oppression of the Western bloc regimes were instrumental in emboldening dissidents, particularly in his home country of Poland.

However, their anti-communist stance isn’t the reason why Reagan, Thatcher and John Paul II were so important; it is because they had the courage to stand strong during a crucial moment in history. It would have been easy, certainly for Reagan and Thatcher, to have adopted an isolationist attitude and turn a blind eye to the anguish of the policies of the Soviet bloc. This a great temptation in today’s political correctness and hypersensitivity, which had given rise to equivocation and fecklessness of individuals whose concern is sensitivity rather than truth.

If Reagan, Thatcher or John Paul II had given merit to this way of thinking, imagine how much longer the reign of communism in Eastern Europe would have gone on. How many more people would have died from neglect and poverty, dying in the belief that no one in the world cared about their plight? Instead, three great leaders were advocates for them, providing a voice for the voiceless and letting millions know that there were people in the world who saw and cared about their fate. This is the legacy of Thatcher and her allies, whose actions provide a lasting example of the power of an individual voice when they dare to make a stand for right, regardless of what their opponents may say.

Sadly, the era that understood this value seems to have died with Thatcher. Millions around the world remain victims of oppressive communist regimes, but they have no voice in the free world to stand up for them. Rather their leaders are praised when they die. Public figures travel and cavort with brutal dictators, granting legitimacy to their despotic policies. The world powers turn a blind eye toward the world’s ills, even as they name themselves champions of justice and goodness. This is the greatest tragedy in Thatcher’s death. Her departure sees the setting of the bold individualist who stands unequivocally for the belief in absolute right.

Katherine Revello is a second-year journalism and political science student.